Of Masks and Memories
by imCampbellim
Summary: She woke as she always did, screaming. Screaming from the memories of her comrades being torn apart by hollows, screaming from the memories of her days living on the edges of soul society, screaming from the memories of the first man she killed. Always Screaming. The third seat of squad ten has to decide what to do with those nightmares. To be consumed or to be victorious. Tia/OC
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello! I hope you guys enjoy this little story. I've had the basic plot for this in my mind for awhile and i've finally begun to put down in words. I did start this farther from where one might expect considering the pairing. (tia/oc) that is for the reason of showing the slight changes in this story from the original bleach. I wont be making my oc some Mary Sue overpowered god tier character. No in fact she's going to get beat... A lot in the beginning. The first few chapters are going to focus on the build up of several small changes leading to where the main story is. Yes I could have dropped you in the middle of the big story changer, but.. I didnt want to do that. I wanted a build up and thus... Anyway. I have made decisions about this story and developed what I think are reasonable explanations for why the changes are going to occur.

I'd like to post a question for you all (I have already designed it) what is Niana's shikai? I'll give you two hints, it works well in conjunction with her captains and second it is referenced in this chapter.

* * *

She woke as she always did, screaming. Screaming from the memories of her comrades being torn apart by hollows, screaming from the memories of her days living on the edges of soul society, screaming from the memories of the first man she killed. ALways screaming. It was for this reason she didnt sleep in the barracks with everyone else, when she did she woke everyone up and that wasnt conducive to the squad, as such her captain had her sleep in one of the offices, luckily it was hers now and she didnt have to clean it up before the third seat came in. She sat up in her bed and brought a pale hand to her sweaty forehead. She threw a leg over the bed and stood, it would do her no good to try and sleep now that her nightmares had woken her once more. She dropped the robes she wore to bed and padded across the room naked before slipping into a bath tucked behind her office. She sunk into the water cleaning the sweat off her body all the while trying to banish her thoughts from those nightmares. She dunked her head under the water her eyes closed as she held herself there till her lungs burned for air. She popped her head back up panting for breath before shaking her head. She went about washing her body before she stood up and dried off. She dressed herself in her robes and pulled her blade to her hip, as she was only a third seat she was allowed to have her blade on her at all times, despite having her shikaia available to her. SHe didnt keep her blade with her all the time just kept it near in case of any emergencies. There were a few instances where they sent her out to help with exterminating any large batches of hollows, but that was rare.

She walked down the walkways of her barracks the nighttime lanterns still burning and the night crew were still patrolling. SHe nodded to them as they bowed to her. She nodded to them as she padded across to her captain's office. If there was one person she expected to still be awake it was him. She knocked lightly only to be met with silence. She looked around and after seeing no one else near she opened the door and stepped in to the dark office. Her captain's office was large and filled with bookshelves, in the middle were two couches and a table. Her, the lieutenant, and her captain would spend the late nights there talking provided the captain had finished all his work. If he hadn't it'd just be the lieutenant and her talking. She walked further in and looked down on the couch there sleeping was her lieutenant, the captains coat was covering her keeping her warm. She looked around unable to find the captain in the office. With a sigh she walked to the other couch and laid down looking at her sleeping lieutenant the calm on the woman's face was a source of relief for the distraught third seat. The third seat took a deep breath and folded her hands in her lap before standing and walking to the window. The first traces of morning began to make their way over the mountains and with a smile she greeted the dawn. Just as peace over took the memories of her nightmares it was interrupted by the banging of a hammer on a plank to alert her to the alarm going off. She glanced back at her lieutenant who shot up to the sound of the alarm.

"Intruders!" A voice shouted out the third seat's eyes narrowed, someone had broken in? How? The barrier was supposed to stop that from ever happening. She ran to the window looking out into the sky tracking the light streaking accross. Her lieutenant came beside her and stared out as well. A light sigh slipped out of her lieutenants mouth as the light broke apart spiraling four directions away. They were headed far away from where squad 10s barracks were and as such away from the third seat.

"Your orders Rangiku? SHall I go?" She asks placing one foot on the windowsill. Rangiku shakes her head.

"We will await our captains orders, Niana. Besides unseated officers could take care of this, according to Renji if this is the same group they may have a lot of reiatsu but they are weak in combat." She says her eyes narrowed as she looked out. Niana nodded her eyes floating over to the couch where her zanpakto rested. SHe didn't have the same restriction on releasing her blade in combat as a lieutenant or a captain would as she wasnt as strong as them. SHe turned her attention back to the sky only to be met with her captain standing on the rooftop across from their vantage point. The captain disappeared before she felt his reiatsu behind her. She turned and looked down staring at the diminutive captain.

"Orders?" Niana says quickly before her captain turns around walking to his desk.

"We will wait. There is no need for us all to go out.. The intruders will be swiftly taken care of." He says his voice unnaturally distant. Niana stared at him trying to understand why before Rangiku spoke up

"Something happen at the captain's meeting?" She says leaning against the window looking out at the sky.

"Maybe. I'm not sure it could have been just an innocuous comment." He says sitting down and folding his arms over his chest as he contemplated the interaction he had seen. Rangiku walked towards him and sat at the other side of the desk looking at him. Soon they began to discuss exactly what he had heard as well as the ryoka. While they spoke Niana looked out the window wondering just what was going on? First Rukia disappears only to be found having commited a terrible crime now there were intruders in Soul Society. She looked out into the sky and prayed that the feeling worming its way into her stomach was just the beginning of a stomachache.

* * *

As life would have it that sickening feeling wasnt just a stomachache, no it was the calm before the storm, the moment you know something is about to change everything in your life. For her it was the moment when Renji was beat, and when Captain Aizen was found dead. She stood listening to her captain explain what he believed to have happened a frown on her face as he spoke. It didnt make sense why would Gin kill Aizen? From what she had heard from Rangiku, Gin was different sure, but he was a good man. SHe looked over at Rangiku who was looking out at the night sky.

"I dont understand captain. What makes you sure it was Gin not one of the Ryoka?" NIana says "THey are the logical conclusion, it seems like a leap of logic to go to one of ours killing the other." She continues her pacing as she spoke.

"There were four off shoots from when the Ryoka invaded. Four are captured and they are... rather vocal from what I heard. THere seems to be only one more running free, a boy, Ichigo. As such I find it unlikely that he killed Aizen and Renji in two different places during the same night." Toshiro says looking at her and she sighs before nodding.

"If.. that's the case. Then we're in more trouble then we've ever been. If our captains are turning on one another, disorder will surely grow." She speaks slowly considering her words before a messenger came running into the room.

"Renji Abarai, Momo Hinamori, and Izuru Kira have broken free from the prison." The man says and Niana looks over at Toshiro who's eyes were slowly widening. The messenger disappears and Niana turns to her captain.

"Orders?" She says trying to recapture his attention and to turn him from the thoughts she was sure he was having in this moment.

"Go.. get them." He whispers before he jumps out the window. NIana runs to the window and looks at Rangiku.

"You coming?" SHe says putting a hand on her lieutenant's shoulder. Rangiku shook her head in denial and for a moment NIana wondered if she should stay to help her. She bit her lip before looking out and leaving the lieutenant alone as well. NIana ran along the rooftops searching for any sight of the escaped lieutenants. She knew in battle she truly would stand no chance against the lieutenant's prowess but she had to do what she had to. She ran as fast as she could before her attention was drawn to the feeling of her captains reiatsu flaring. She made her way over there only to watch her captain dodge a strike from Gin putting Momo in danger. Without a thought she ran forward to stop the weapon. She brought her sword up to stop the blade only to have the force of the strike send her blade wide and the captain's blade entered and exited her shoulder. She gasped in pain and turned her head as she heard metal hit metal. There kneeling infront of Momo was Rangiku. The blade pulled back pulling from her shoulder and she collapsed to one knee. She coughed trying to stand only to feel Rangiku's hand on her stemming the blood from the wound. Her captain soon appeared beside her looking down at her.

"Sorry Captain.. I wasn't able to stop him." She says looking up at her captain.

"I wouldnt have been able to stop him if you hadn't slowed his blade fractionally." Rangiku says softly in her ear. She laughed softly and looked down at her shoulder. Her arm hung uselessly and she tried to stand again only for Toshiro to help her stand. He grabbed her waist and they disappeare from the location. She gasped as she felt herself being pulled across soul society before she appeared at the barracks to the fourth squad. She was brought to a table to be treated her eyes on her lieutenant as her captain returned to deal with the unconscious Momo.

"I'm sorry Rangiku.." Niana whispers looking at her. Shock made it clear on Rangiku's face at the apology

"I should be the sorry one... I was a fraction of a second to late to stop him... If I had gone with you.. Maybe together we could have stopped him without anyone getting hurt." Rangiku says sitting down as the lieutenant of the fourth squad opened up NIana's robes to get to the wound.

"No... I'm sorry.. I'm sorry I know you didnt want to believe captain when he said it was Captain Ichimaru.." NIana replies looking over at Rangiku who looked down at her lap.

"No. I didn't but.. now I cant deny it.. The man I knew when I was young.. Has changed." She whispers. A soft hand found Rangiku's shoulder and both NIana and her looked at the newcomer only to see Captain Unohana looking at them.

"Now.. THere will be time to discuss what happened this night later." Unohana says while Isane's hands are placed on her bare shoulders as she healed the injured third seat. Niana looked to the side and nearly jumped in shock as she saw Zaraki laying on his back his eyes shut.

"Ho-how did Captain Kenpachi get injured?" SHe asks before UNohana pulls a blind covering her view of the room.

"One of the Ryoka managed to injure and nearly kill him." Unohana says softly as she oversaw Isane's work. As soon as Isane pulled away Unohana stepped up and sat beside Niana.

"Now. Tell me what did you mean by Captain Ichimaru did this? He attacked you?" SHe says leaning in the chair. Niana shook her head and began to explain what she saw even if it looked bad for her captain. Unohana listened intently before nodding slowly. "Captain Ichimaru and Hitsugaya both will likely face punishment for what happened this night.."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you for enjoying the story! I know the bleach fandom in fanfiction has diminished as the story has finished so just seeing people like my story is fantastic. I will continue to update! Hope you enjoy this chapter. We get to Sosuke's betrayal here and the first change starts. Since this is harder to work into conversation, I'll just explain it here! Though the start of chapter 3 says it I feel like I should explain it here and the reason for it.

Time. The change i've put in place involves how time is treated. Human world is the base we will use to explain this. For the human world 1 day is three days in Soul Society, and 1 day in human world is a week in Hueco Mundo. This is because it makes no sense to me that in a short period of time Aizen comes with a full blown army. So I'm putting his change so that 1. he can bring his army realistically and 2. they mention the passage between soul society and human world and how time changes there.. So why wouldnt it everywhere? Like why would it only be there. I see that as just a mechanism to allow Ichigo to suddenly become a lot stronger and then it doesnt exist afterwards.. So it will exist fully, the problem is is that for everyone the fear of being in that passage way is getting lost. That's why they dont use it to train.

Hope this makes sense.

A/N end:

Niana woke to the feeling of water dripping onto her chest, along with a weight on her stomach. Her eyes opened and she looked up to see a black haired woman sitting on. The woman had a cloth wrapped around her mouth and her hands were tied behind her back, her feet were also restrained and the woman was soaking wet. As their eyes met the black-haired woman leaned down moving closer to Niana's face.

"Why didnt you fight? Why didnt you call me?" THe spirit says her voice sounded as though someone was trying to speak through water and sure enough bubbles formed around the gag in the womans mouth.

"He's a captain there was no way we could have won.." Niana replies only for the spirit to slam its head against her forehead. WHile the spirit wasnt necessarily actually present the pain still shot down Niana's body.

"You have such little faith in my power? If you had used me we could have atleast deflected it without getting hurt!" She snaps tears seeming to form in the spirits eyes before Niana reached up and grabbed her arms.

"No. Its not that you arent strong enough.. Its me.. I dont have the control over your form to have stopped him. I am sorry." Niana says looking up at her zanpakuto spirit. THe spirit's eyes are still glassy but slowly she nods

"Then.. What will you do?" She says before fading away already knowing her wielders answer. Niana smiled softly and sat up wincing before glancing over at the spot beside her. Sure enough Rangiku and her captain were gone. She threw a leg over the bed and glanced over at where Zaraki Kenpachi was the night before only to find him gone as well. She looked out the window and could see the flames of the sokyoku starting to form. Her eyes widened in shock as she could feel the heat even from the distance she was at, she could feel the fury of the reiatsu stored in that blade. She glanced back and grabbed her zanpakuto before leaping out the window. She knew her captain would be at the sokyoku and while her place wasn't there it was her role to tend to her barracks. She leaped over the rooftops heading towards her barracks only to stop as she felt an explosion from the hill. Her eyes shot over there only to watch as the Sokyoku completely dissapeared. She took another look in the direction of her barracks before taking off towards the hill. She turned into a blur as she moved as fast as she could passing up Zaraki who was running with several people on his back, slowing him down. She didnt pause to look at the man as the juggernaut scared her quite honestly.

With a final leap she landed on the hill only to watch as three lieutenants were taken down without any struggle. She reached down to her blade her hand shaking slightly, knowing she had no chance against a man that was capable of taking down three lieutenants so easily. Her blade glowed for a moment before she was stopped by a hand on her hilt. She turned to see the same man looking at her. She quickly raised her hands to stop the blow but rather then a punch she was lifted into the air and tossed. She spiraled outward flipping in the air and placing her feet against the air stopping her spiral. SHe righted herself only to be punched by the man sending her to the ground. She crashed against the ground the reiatsu infused rock cracking from the hit. She tried to stand only to be stopped by a hand grabbing her waist. She was pulled away quickly by captain Unohana and was placed on a rooftop beside the other lieutenants. While she was conscious unlike the lieutenant of the second squad she was certainly sore and shocked by the new mans actions.

"Captain Unohana.." She starts before Isane stands up looking at her captain

"We're leaving Isane.. third seat Niana please watch over the lieutenants." Unohana says before her and Isane disappear. Niana glances at lieutenant Omaeda and then at the conscious lieutenant Chojiro. She sighed softly and sat down on the rooftop shaking her head. Was this just another situation where she couldnt be of any help?

She stayed seated for only a few dozen minutes before the notice that captain Aizen was a traitor as well as Captain Ichimaru and Captain Tosen. Upon feeling Captain Aizens reiatsu on the hill she glanced back at chojiro who nodded and they both jumped up the wall. They arrived just in time to watch as all the conscious captains appeared on the same field. Niana's eyes scoured the field looking at the ground seeing the fallen captains as well as the Ryoka that had beaten so many lieutenants. Her eyes followed as the three traitors were lokced in a glowing yellow field. Her eyes widened as she listened to the cpatian commander explain what exactly was going on and she frowned knowing she couldnt do anything in this instance. It wasnt like she could beat those three captains, but it was her job as a third seat to try wasnt it? She closed her eyes as the traitors disappeared and she vowed that the next time she saw those three she would be able to fight them, maybe not beat them but she would give them a fight they wouldnt forget. Her eyes drifted to Rangiku who was staring up at the empty sky as though if she looked long enough Gin would return. She walked slowly over and reached out to hug her before her hands dropped. What could she say? No matter what she did nothing was going to change here. She couldn't vow to bring Gin back, because that would mean his execution. She couldnt vow to find the truth, because that wouldn't excuse his actions. She sighed and turned away before disappearing from the hill in a shunpo.

-A week later-

A week after Sosuke's disappearance, soul society returned to normal, well a normal of sorts. The world returned to a half broken peace formed only by the knowledge that they were on the cusp of war. While there was some people that were healing from injuries sustained most were perfectly able to return to their duties, and in some instances they were. Some lieutenants were reeling from what had happened as for Niana she spent the time training in privacy. She had vowed to her blade that she would, that she would become stronger, better at weilding its power, smarter in combat, and she never broke a vow. Within a week she realized what she needed was someone to fight, to practice with. She needed to lose battles until she could fix her mistakes. For a moment she had considered asking Rangiku, but given her current state NIana couldn't pressure her. As for her captain, she never saw him for long periods of time. He'd come collect the reports and then disappear only to return with the reports finished. As such she couldnt ask him either. This led to only one real decision for her. She sighed as she watched Ichigo go running out of the eleventh squads barracks, shortly after Zaraki left as well. That was good by her, as she didnt have to be near the scary captain. She walked into the barracks and looked around hunting for her target. Sure enough there he was standing iwth a wooden sword in his hand.

"Ikkaku..." She says slowly and the bald man looked at her before his eyebrow went up. It was a rare thing that she was seen outside of her own barracks and rarer still that she came close to the eleventh barracks. She played with the string on the hilt of her zanpakuto as she gathered the courage to speak

"What is it?" He says annoyed by her not speaking up

"Train me.." She says looking up at him. "I was useless the entire time the Ryoka were here.. I couldnt do a thing couldn't help.. Train me Ikkaku." She continues before Ikkaku scratched as his ear as though he was picking earwax out from it. A grin slipped onto his face and he nodded. Niana smiled and reached back to her blue hair and quickly collected in before putting it in a ponytail. She disappeared in a shunpo knowing that Ikkaku would follow her. Her disappearing like this would tell him she wanted a full fight not just wooden swords. She brought him to a cave that squad ten used for their seated officers to train their shikai. Ikkaku appeared infront of her his blade on his hip. She pulled out her sword and without warning dashed forward. Her sword was met with his and he swung out with his sheath. Niana raised a hand to stop the sheathe from hitting her and a grin came to Ikkaku's face. He tilted his blade letting hers slide up till their hilts met. He flicked his wrist and sent her blade up high before placing his sword on her neck.

"Dead." He says smiling at her and Niana frowns. He jumps back from her and looks at her waiting for her. Her eyes narrowed and rather then attacking from the front she used a shunpo to appear behind him. She swung her sword only to be met with air as he ducked under her blade. He stabbed up stopping his blade just as it tapped against her neck.

"Again." He says and jumps away once more. This went on for several hours, him calling out her being dead each time. Eventually the fights lasted longer before she was able to get one lucky break and managed to note him as dead in this fight. They fought till the sun went down and then up again. Soon Niana fell to her knees panting unable to continue while Ikkaku was seemingly fine. He was breathing slightly faster but no where near as much as NIana was. He looked at her and shook his head.

"Take a break." He says and walks away leaving Niana on the floor of the cave panting. Was she really this weak or was he just a lot stronger then her. She could dispatch hollows with ease, but this was different. Hollows werent as fast as Ikkaku was, nor were they as smart. Most hollows tended to be mindless beasts hellbent on killing. Of course as they devoured more and more souls it would appear as though they gathered intelligence, but even then they werent like Ikkaku was in battle. She knelt looking down at her blade and sighed, she had managed to get him once she could do it again. She laid down sweat dripping down her body and she pulled her blade to her average sized bosom. She held it there letting the cool feel of it calm her before she stood up with a grunt. Ikkaku may have gone to give her a break, but that didnt mean she had to stop. Sure she was tired but she had to train, had to work herself to the bone so that she could fight correctly.


End file.
